Melissa McCarthy will do anything for a laugh. The wisecracking, Emmy Award-winning costar of CBS's Mike & Molly has guzzled ranch dressing on Saturday Night Live and taken a bite of Kristen Wiig's backside in Bridesmaids. As Megan, the hit comedy's wildly inappropriate sister of the groom, McCarthy also hilariously seduced an air marshal (played by her real-life husband, Ben Falcone) and walked away with the movie and an Academy Award nomination. Critics love the 42-year-old girl next door from rural Plainfield, IL, and so do millions of everyday women. They view the immensely likable working wife and mom as a regular-gal role model and cherish her as living proof that self-acceptance and perseverance can make any dream come true.

The secret behind McCarthy's success is simple: She will do whatever it takes to get a giggle. That includes fearless acts, like doing stand-up comedy on a dare (how she got into show business), and clever ruses, like sprinkling powdered-sugar boot prints near the fireplace to convince her daughters — Vivian, 5, and Georgette, 2½ — that Santa Claus has come down the chimney.

"There's a bit of a kook in here," she says, pointing to herself. "And I picked a career at which you have to be a bit crazy to think you can make a living. The lunacy is, I get to; that doesn't ever escape me."

What's even more mind-boggling is that in an industry obsessed with youthful, toothpick-slim actresses, McCarthy has never let her age or her shape become an issue. "Sometimes I wish I were just magically a size 6 and I never had to give [my weight] a single thought," admits McCarthy, who plays tennis and does Pilates. "But I am weirdly healthy, so I don't beat myself up about it — it wouldn't help, and I don't want to pass that on to my girls." Besides, when it comes to acting roles, McCarthy considers her size irrelevant. "I've never been interested in playing the boring ingenue," she replies. "I always wonder, Who's her weird friend? I like the oddballs."

HAPPY AT ANY SIZE

Dressed in a floral wrap top, black cigarette pants, and Nikes with neon green laces, McCarthy sips iced tea in her dressing room on the soundstage where Mike & Molly is shot. The self-confessed interior design obsessive has furnished her workspace — often visited by her daughters — like a cozy, artistic cottage, with pale gray walls, a sofa with velvet and needlepoint cushions, and comfy toile-covered English armchairs. On the walls are photos of the girls, paintings they made for their mommy, and random garage sale paintings that "freak my husband out, so they ended up here," McCarthy explains.

It's nearly 3 P.M., and the actress has a few more scenes to rehearse for an upcoming episode. But first she reaches for some hand sanitizer. "I got something weird on my hands from the set," McCarthy says. "I'm not a crazy germophobe; I have kids, and that ship has sailed." Nowadays if there's a sneeze or a spill, she jokes, "I'll just wipe it up with my shirt."

While McCarthy's sense of humor is infectious, she's very serious about her career. It's taken courage to make her way in a business filled with criticism and rejection. While she owes her success to hard work, McCarthy credits family, friends, and faith for instilling confidence in her. "I did lots of falling down on my face, and I just kept getting back up," she says of her early dues-paying days. "It's not the biggest deal. Eventually you realize you'll get up, and you don't mind the falling as much.

"Since I was a little kid, my answer to anyone who says, 'This is how it's done' has been 'Why?' Who the hell cares that everybody else is doing it this way, saying this, wearing that? If everyone is beating their heads against a wall, go around the wall." Saying McCarthy has persistence is putting it mildly: "When I believe in something, I'm like a dog with a bone. As long as you're not hurting anyone, I don't know that you'll ever regret [pushing ahead]. You'll be happier and more true to who you really are," she says.

To the casual observer, McCarthy may seem like an overjoyed overnight sensation. In truth, she spent years struggling to pay her bills — and still found time to build a solid marriage and start a family. Now her success has put her in an enviable position, one in which she can make the best choices for her personal and her professional life. And make no mistake — her career is in overdrive. In addition to a hit TV show and an appearance in Judd Apatow's This Is 40, due this month, McCarthy has two movies, The Heat (with Sandra Bullock) and Identity Thief (with Jason Bateman), coming out next year. She's also working on a TV show and a road-trip movie with her husband.

After briefly studying fashion and textiles in college and customizing most of her own wardrobe over the years, the talented seamstress is also planning to launch a clothing collection for women like her. "I am plus-size, and the things out there are made either for a 16-year-old hooker or an 89-year-old grandmother of the bride — and they're made from the material used for haircutting capes," she says. "The fabric has to be better, the cuts have to be better, and I want [the collection to be made] in the United States. I have no problem saying that an item might cost $11 more than the shirt down the street; it will last longer, and it will fit and look better." The line, which will likely include dresses designed in her favorite flattering Empire-waist style with a deep V-neck, is still in the early stages of development, but McCarthy is determined to make it happen.

She is also committed to shedding the extra pounds that came along with having two babies in three years and almost nonstop work. Any mom who has battled post-pregnancy weight can relate to McCarthy's story, which was complicated by constant back pain. "You need to give yourself a break [after childbirth] to get your body working again," she advises. "I ran right back to work. My back was just destroyed after pregnancy. I almost had to have surgery, until I did Pilates and rebuilt my body."

McCarthy doesn't dwell on the numbers on the scale. "It's something I'm always working on," she says with a shrug. "I don't know why I'm not thinner than I am. I don't really drink soda; I don't have a sweet tooth, and we eat healthfully at home. We're all weird for broccoli and pureed-vegetable soup (see recipe), which we almost always have a big pot of in the fridge — it's so good!

"Pretty much everyone I know, no matter what size, is trying some system," McCarthy says. "Even when someone gets to looking like she should be so proud of herself, instead she's like, 'I could be another three pounds less; I could be a little taller and have bigger lips.' Where does it end?" McCarthy's message: It's what's inside that counts.

At her current stage in life, McCarthy says, "You just have to say, It's pretty damn good. I am right here at the moment, and I'm OK with it. I've got other things to think about." Being the best wife and mother she can be is a given, but this is McCarthy's moment as an actress and a businesswoman, and she is intent on making the most of it. After all, she hasn't gotten this far by acknowledging the existence of something called exhaustion.

"I know somewhere in there, I'm incredibly tired, but I just keep going," she says of her increasingly busy schedule, which is carefully organized so she can still take her kids to school and to gymnastics. "I'm afraid that if I stop, I'll just disintegrate." She's definitely discovered one of the inescapable facts of parenthood: "Once you have little kids, it's kind of like survival mode for your sleep," McCarthy says. "They still get up every day at 5 A.M. I'm now down for the count usually by 9 or 9:30 P.M., but it's never continuous sleep. And then sometimes I wake up too early, and I'll go watch a little HGTV; I can look at houses and find it mind-blowingly relaxing. Luckily, I've convinced myself I don't need that much sleep, but I don't know if that's actually true."

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